Sleep Dreamlessly
by war wound
Summary: Archibald can't sleep and Neville is tired of it.


I'm playing Dickon in this show currently, and my friend who plays Lily prompted me to write her a Cravencest dom/sub fic but this happened instead and I have no idea why.

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><p>"Lord, Archibald." Archibald jumped when he heard the voice, heard the trouncing footsteps enter his room, heard the door swing back and hit the wall when Neville came in. "You need to be <em>quiet<em> at night, or else people can't _sleep_." Archibald could hear the scowl in his younger brother's voice, and his eyes followed the dull movement in the dark until there was a spark of light and Neville had lit the bedside lantern with his lighter. He made a small noise and lifted one hand to wipe the tears from his eyes, but Neville grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm up, sitting himself down on the bed.

Archibald paused, frowned, stared up at his brother with a sort of pleading look in his eyes, and tried a small smile. It didn't remedy the scowl on his face, but Neville did put his arm down. Archibald quickly put his arm behind his back and shifted in the bed, making room for Neville. There was a silence, and Neville piped up, his body making a short upward movement as he spoke, "you're not going to say anything?" and Archibald didn't say anything, so Neville rolled him onto his back, narrowed his eyes at the way Archibald's own crinkled at the action, and grabbed his other wrist.

"Stop," Archibald managed, and Neville stopped. "Now you're at it. Damnit, Archie, you're a grown man, you can't be having these _night terrors_ and crying out in your sleep, it's not-"

"Don't curse."

"You're an even brattier child than that son of yours is." Neville watched the short flash of pain on his brother's face at this, almost felt a wave of pleasure from it, shook the thoughts out of his mind. "But I'm not going to hold your hand through the night, I'm not going to lay down with you until you've fallen asleep. I'm not going to read you a bedtime story, for God's sake. You're going to sleep, and sleep dreamlessly."

"Prescribe me something," Archibald mumbled, "to take it away."

"The dreams?"

"The pain."

"You speak like a storybook, and you read like one left in the rain." Neville coughed under his breath, watched the wrinkles around his brother's eyes form, checked the red in the lids. "You're going to have to sleep sometime. Please."

"I can't sleep, Neville, can't sleep, or eat, or live."

"Be quiet."

"Forgive me."

"I've nothing to forgive you for; you're disobedient_._" Neville scoffed, checked the blue around the edges of Archibald's wrist where his hold was. "If you're in pain, tell me so." He said this slowly, looked down at his brother with his mouth open, and the two stared at each other for a moment. "You're in pain, Archie."

"I don't care."

"I could rip your hand off right now, Archie, please, if you're hurting you have to _let me heal you_-" Archibald jerked his hand at this, and Neville growled, pushing his hand down onto his chest and climbing further up onto the bed. "I'm not letting go until you tell me to."

"This is what I deserve." Archibald droned, and Neville ran his arm into his neck, ready to choke him with his own flesh, Archibald tried to move his arm away from himself but Neville's push on him was too strong. "Nev-"

"Does it hurt?"

Archibald made no response, and Neville pushed harder. "Neville, I _deserve_-"

"You deserve _all_ of this, you do, don't you, you waste of space, waste of a perfectly nice room and house and fortune, waste of your drool on your sleeve, waste of _love_ and stupid waste of pain-you do _deserve_ this and that's why-" Neville let go, made no reaction when the moment he pulled away Archibald pulled in a sharp breath, just stared, rose up. "-you'll never get it."

Archibald's eyes were closed, and he coughed very softly, pulled one arm out from behind his back to rub at the injured one softly. He made no sound for a short while, and then motioned over at the lantern. "Turn the light off."

"Are you going to sleep?"

"I'm going to lay here until the sun shines in."

"That's what sleeping is now, I forgot." Neville sighed and got up from the bed, walked over to the lantern, and took one last look at his brother. "Sleep dreamlessly."

"I will try my best."

Neville put out the light and watched his footsteps to make sure he didn't walk too loudly, and rested his hand on the doorway before leaving. "And peacefully. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


End file.
